Getting krausen into fermented wort?

I am currently brewing a 10 litre batch of hefeweizen in a polyethylene water tank, which looks like this:



Currently it is upright, and where the red cap was, I have attached a rubber bung and airlock. Right now it is fermenting nicely.

Initially I was planning to remove the airlock after primary fermentation is finished, and attach a spigot + tubing system to where the red cap was, which will make bottling much easier for me. Homebrewing supplies are rare and expensive in Japan, so I am trying to improvise a lot as well.

The spigot system looks like this:



However, this will mean that I will have to rotate the water tank 90 degrees on its side. This will also mean that whatever krausen and residue (from yeast and hops) will reenter my fermented wort.

Will there be be any off-flavours or problems that arise if the krausen and residue get into my brew? Or will leaving it on its side for a few days allow the stuff to sink to the bottom, therefore not getting into my bottles? If anyone has an idea, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,

Surume

Excellent detailed post!!

Krausen will be of no concern, yeast, however, will.

I would tilt the container as much as you can now. Ideally it would reach a 45 degreee angle or so.

That way the yeast will settle in the corner, and only be tilted at a 45 degree and hopefully not slide into the wort.

Due to the construction of the spigot cap, I can get an inch and a half of elevation from the "bottom" of the tank when it is turned on its side. I suppose if I let the yeast settle for about 2 days, I should have no problems then?

From looking at it, I would tilt it so the green cap is level and attach my airlock there rather than the red one. I would then siphon the wort rather than use the spigot if it were me......after looking at it again, it looks as if you could lay it on its side ( after fermentation is done) with the spigot attached to the green cap side. Put the green cap side down and the red cap up. it looks as if the green cap is high enough that the trub will be below the level of the spigot so you can bottle and leave the trub.

2 days settling should be fine, as long as fermentation is nicely finished (at the very least two weeks since pitching). Make sure there are no high spikes in temperature during that settling (a little bit colder would be better, as long as it's not so cold that the active yeast drop out), and I wouldn't let it shake while rotating it on it's side. I'd be hoping that this way, more of the sediment might slowly sludge down along the side rather than mix back into the beer and have to settle out.
If there is any accidental shaking, or it falls over while on it's side (!) an extra few days to settle would be best and will not hurt the beer at all (might even make it better!).

Thanks Ohiosteve and Kahless! I agree putting the spigot on the green cap end would be better, and I'll wait for fermentation to fully finish before bottling (I was initially thinking about bottling 7 days after pitching, but I suppose 1 extra week in the fermenter will be 1 less week in bottle conditioning?

As for the temperature, room temperature in Japan is currently around 25 degrees celcius, but with October approaching, I'm hoping it will get colder (Japan has really messed up seasons with global warming and such, and we don't have a proper spring or autumn; just a horribly long and hot summer, and and a cold and humid winter)

During bottle conditioning there is a carbonation action - add sugar before bottling and the yeast still floating about will eat it producing CO2 which is stuck inside the bottle and alot of it stays dissolved in the beer. This can take a week, two weeks, maybe three if the yeast aren't doing as well. The bottles can then be put into the fridge at any time after that (so i usually keep a few standing upright in the fridge for 1 week before drinking), which causes the yeast to drop out, although I don't find this necessary with all my beers. Of course, this process of bottle-fermentation (often called bottle conditioning) will not be started in the fermenter.

However, in time, bottle conditioned beer gets better, and so you might want to wait a month after it's bottled to get an even better tasting beer, as the yeast continue to clean things up (this is the advantage to bottle conditioning and cask ales - live yeast! - the beer also keeps for a long time, although the peak is said to be 3 months for normal alcohol level beers).

This "cleaning" form of conditioning will happen in the fermenter for that 1 week extra, and so it should result in a better tasting beer once carbonation has finished, if you get me (as carbonation will not finish for another week, but the beer will have had a whole week of conditioning in the fermenter, where it gets to move around and do a whole lot of cleaning very easily). This conditioning or rest-stage allows the yeast to eat away some off flavours such as diacetyl.


On the temperature, 25 degrees is on the hot side of yeast happyness - If you have any methods or can find a way to cool it down to a steady/consistent temperature of e.g. 20 (depending on your yeasts instructions) you should get really awesome results that way.